Good evening, and welcome to ayman tonight. The rematch nobody wanted, its trump versus biden again. Both men are in Georgia Holding dueling rallies with two starkly different visions for america. Plus, in search of a spine, where the backbones of the Republican Party . As you can see, they rebuked trump one moment, and kiss the ring the next. Rage against the comedian, Kathy Griffin says she is sorry for apologizing for the Infamous Trump photo. She is here tonight with a warning to all who think they are me and from tron. Lets do it. As of this week, we now know for certain that the 2024 General Election will be a contest between President Joe Biden and his predecessor, donald trump. It is the rematch almost no one wanted, but despite the fact that these two men ran against one another in 2020, the stakes of this election are much higher. Never before in American History have voters faced such a stark contrast. Such a drastic choice between two vastly different visions of america. To quote the wall street journal, are we a resurgent country making steady progress towards a future of shared prosperity, or are we a Dystopian Backwater On A Path to ruin . These two men and their respective platforms could not be more at odds. In joe biden, you have a man who has vowed to protect womens reproductive rights, and in donald trump, he will allow republican lawmakers to launch even more extreme attacks on the female body and autonomy. In joe biden, you have a man who has done more to address Climate Change than any president in American History, while donald trump has promised to drill baby drill, and called green energy a new scam business. In joe biden, you have a man who has steered the economy through covid19 without causing a recession, with inflation now lower than any other major advanced economy. The stock market is breaking records as confidence in the economy continues to grow. Donald trump, however, says that he hopes the Economy Crashes before the next election. In joe biden, you have a man who has pledged to protect and preserve our democracy, by contrast, donald trump is openly, brazenly touting his authoritarian desires, saying that he will be a dictator on day one if elected. He and his allies at the Heritage Foundation plan to get the federal bureaucracy, firing 50,000 government workers and replacing them with prevetted mack on loyalists, and he will recognize the doj against his political enemies. He warned about it on the stump earlier in georgia. Its not hyperbole. Our freedoms are literally on the ballot this november. Donald trump and the trinity republicans are trying to take our freedoms away, and by the way, not all republicans this aint your fathers Republican Party. These guys are different. Now, considering all of this, i have one question for everyone. How is this race even remotely competitive . How is donald trump, according to the latest New York TimesSiena College poll, actually leaving joe biden by five points . President biden messaging is not lending, perhaps. Neither is a clear and glaring dangers of a second Trump Presidency with american voters. What about the contrast between these men that is not getting through to the American People . Thats where we kick off this hour. Carlos cabela, a former congressman and nbc political analyst, and former senator barbara boxer. Ruth ben giat. Ruth, i will start with you, a man who has pledged to be a dictator on day one, and somehow, despite his threats to our democracy, he is holding neck and neck with joe biden and beating him in some of these polls. How do you explain this phenomenon . When you look back in history, are there any patterns that can help explain to our viewers and to us why we are seeing this phenomenon play out . Trump has been stupendously successful in building a leadership cult, a cult of personality, and convincing people, and its quite extraordinary. I dont know any other case in history where someone pulled off a Mass Deception at this scale, in an open society with pluralistic media, and here im referring to his claim that he won the 2020 election. Hitler, mussolini, other dictators, they did this in a closed society, to convince people of their lies. Donald trump has done this in an open society, which speaks to the strength of his cult. He has also been able to play the victim very successfully, and this does not get enough attention in that it makes his followers feel protective of him. And, Anything Else that happens to him is just confirmation of this belief that he is a victim being persecuted. January 6th was an attempt to save a distressed leader, and people rallied, and so this is a continuation of that. That ideology of saving the leader from an unjust fate. Senator, let me ask you about the other contrast, and that is between biden and trump, which is so apparent to anyone who sees the difference between these two men. Earlier today, the president sat down with my colleague Jonathan Capehart and talked about his regret for using the term, illegal, to describe the undocumented immigrant, who killed laken riley. Take a listen to this. I shouldnt have used them illegal. Its undocumented. And look, when i spoke about the difference between trump and me, one of the things i talked about at the border is the way he talks about vermin, the way he talks about these people polluting blood. Its also but im not going to do, what i wont do. Im not going to treat any of these people with disrespect. Just this evening, you had a rally in georgia where trump blasted biden for walking that back. Listen. They just told me prior to what im doing right now, that joe biden went on television and apologized for calling laken rileys murderer illegal. He did not want to call him illegal. [ audience reacts ] he said he shouldve called them undocumented, not illegal, and he wanted to apologize. He wanted to apologize. Your reaction to that, senator . Im not shocked at donald trump. The bottom line is, he has a rally, and this is a tragedy that happened to this family, that they lost this child, this young woman, and they had pictures of her. Fine. Why dont they come to the table with this president , who has agreed to deal with this immigration issue . He has agreed to work in a bipartisan way, and you know, i kept thinking to myself, that is fine. He will handle it. He handled it at the State Of The Union. He said her name. He said it was horrible. He is a compassionate man, and maybe at a biden rally, they will have pictures of her, but they will also have pictures of all the kids that died in schools. They want to anything about that. They want to anything about immigration, so, to me, nothing that donald trump says surprises me, but ayman, i think we have to get back to basics. As Ronald Reagan said, the best social program is a job, so i think we need to start with that. Democracy and the threats to it, and all these other issues, mostly, people care about their quality of life, and we have a job creating president , Versus A Job Destroying president. Last point on that, i looked up the stats. We started keeping statistics on job creation and president s 67 years ago. Donald trump is the only president in history to leave office with fewer jobs than when he took office. Joe biden, 15 million jobs created. History breaking. There is a lot we can talk about , a lot. Let me ask you about that, congressman. The economy is very strong by any metric. The stock market is enjoying record highs. Employment is skyrocketing. Inflation is getting under control, continuing to make progress on that front. What happened to James Carvilles old adage, its the economy, stupid. . As a former senator was saying, and as the numbers clearly indicate, why is this race even close . Two issues. Inflation, which we are talking about. Immigration, which we just discussed, and yes, inflation is easing. We know the jobs numbers are good. People are looking at their 401 k s and feeling pretty good these days, however, two people who are lower income, middle class people, inflation is still an issue, because although it easing, its not like we are seeing deflation. Prices are not going back down to what they were two or three years ago, and there are people struggling. It doesnt surprise me when you look at some of this polling. President biden is doing better with groups that are favorable to republicans, like College Educated voters, uppermiddle class voters, and he has had some erosion with lower income people, union workers, hispanics, african americans. The president is really going to have to do a good job over the next eight months of explaining to those groups why things are going to continue Getting Better as wages go up and inflation continues easing. The problem is, a lot of those people still arent feeling the recovery, and they are instinctively turning back to donald trump, because they think that things were better back then, economically. That is going to be something that President Biden is going to have to deal with over the next few months. In addition to those points, the former congressman mentioned the inflation and the easing of inflation, as well as immigration, has the administrations response to the humanitarian crisis in gaza become too much of a Sticking Point for voters of a certain demographic . What does he need to do now between this week, when the General Election officially kicks off, and the november election . Its a very tough issue for the president , and i will tell you why, but i also want to say to the good congressman, you are right. People think in their minds the economy was better under trump. It was a disaster. The lost jobs were history making, and the bottom line is, people were dying of the epidemic. People just need to be reminded of the facts, and the beauty is , i think that will come true, but ayman, there is no question they are group of voters, many of them, who are very concerned about what is happening in gaza, and i know what the president wants. He wants it to be over. He wants to have a two state solution. He wants there to be a cease fire, so that the hostages can come home. And, the bottom line is, some things are out of your control. I know the good congressman, and a lot of times there were things we couldnt control. He will try to control it by putting more pressure on netanyahu. Thats what i think. And, the world has to understand, none of it wouldve happened if hamas wasnt running rampant over there. Former senator barbara boxer, thank you so much for joining us. Ruth and carlos, please stick around. I have more to discuss with you after the break. Next, a pathological liar and sniveling coward. Republicans in their own words about the man they are now endorsing for president. T take if allergic to nurtec. Allergic reactions can occur, even days after using. Most common side effects were nausea, indigestion, and stomach pain. Ask about nurtec odt. I have moderate to severe crohns disease. Now, theres skyrizi. Things are looking up, ive got Symptom Relief. Control of my crohns means everything to me. Control is everything to me. Feel significant Symptom Relief at 4 weeks with skyrizi, including less Abdominal Pain and fewer bowel movements. Skyrizi is the first il23 inhibitor that can deliver remission and visibly improve damage of the intestinal lining. 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Theres even roundtheclock customer support. So you can be there for your customers. With comcast business, reliability isnt just possible. Its happening. Get started for 49 a month. Plus, ask how to get up to a 800 prepaid card with a qualifying internet package. Dont wait, call and switch today in a move that surprised absolutely no one, Mitch Mcconnell announced this week that he will be endorsing donald trump for president. The same man he blamed for the january 6th insurrection, and his wife, former transportation secretary, elaine chao, has been the subject of racist attacks by donald trump, but mcconnell is not an outlier, hes just the latest in a long line of republicans, who have shamelessly flipflopped from condemning trump to being an ardent cheerleader, and you Better Believe we brought the receipts. Watch. This man is a pathological liar. Donald, you are sniveling coward. Leave heidi the hell alone. Im proud to endorse donald trump for president. I support him enthusiastically. I want to be a good ally for the president of the United States, and redeliver him to the white house. I disagree with the president s rhetoric numerous times when it comes to how he addresses women. Im proud to be the first member of congress to endorse President Trump for re election. The first. Trump and i have had a hell of a journey. All i can say is, count me out. Enough is enough. Ive come to like President Trump, and im going to help him become president of the United States. The president bears responsibility for wednesdays attack on congress by mob rioters. He should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding. Can he count on your support . Yes. Thats an endorsement. I will support President Trump. I believe we need to hold the president accountable. I hold them accountable for the events that transpired, for the attack on the capitol last wednesday. There is only one man who can save america, and that man is donald trump. There is no question, that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day. I would support the nominee for president , even if it were the former president. Wow. Well, you sat there, my panel is back. Congressman, i will start with you. What do you think was the most shameful flipflopped out of the ones we just saw . I would say mcconnell, it isnt that surprising. He stuck around with trump after charlottesville, for covid, helped him survive two impeachments, but who do you think is the most shameful out of all of those . The ted cruz one is tough to watch, especially with the insults against his wife, heidi. That was one of the first, dramatic flips early on in this whole process, back in 2016. Look, what brings all of these people together is the desire to remain in power, and its very clear that all of those individuals have serious objections about donald trump, have serious concerns about donald trump. I know that some of them say negative things about donald trump privately, but they want to remain in power, and they are willing to pay the very high price of praising someone, who they know is dangerous, who they know has done horrible things, who they know has lied repeatedly, so that is just the state of the Republican Party today. It is Donald TrumpsRepublican Party, and most republicans in elected office are willing to do whatever it takes to stay in office, and that means wholeheartedly supporting donald trump. Ruth, when you see republicans like mcconnell and others, ted cruz, go out of their way to kiss the ring, we know this is a page out of an authoritarian playbook, but how do you explain it . Have you ever seen loyalty like this that does not come at the Barrel Of A Gun . That is actually the saddest thing about this, that in many regimes, if you criticize the leader, even if he is no longer in office, you go to jail or you are shot. Here, what is at stake is, they are losing office, but also, their reputations, because for those who are very wealthy or wealthy through marriage like Mitch Mcconnell, and this is also true of foreign dictatorships, where the cronies are very wealthy, you cant really buy people off, so what you do is you threaten to shame them, and uncover their secrets, and that is called kompromat. Donald trump is an expert at that through roger stone. He also uses humiliation. That clip he played of lindsey graham, who had said in 2016, if we nominate trump, we will get destroyed and we will deserve it, and now he is out there, playing this Dictator Game of Ritual Humiliation to keep people in line and remind them of what awaits them if they open their mouths and say the wrong things. I have to ask you, congressman, about one republican, that has not endorsed trump yet. Nikki haley. She has hinted she may not endorsed him, but do you think she will pull a mcconnell and come around . W